2 Big Studios Won't Float In Apple's Movie Cloud

Drowned out in all the hullabaloo over Apple’s unveiling of the next iPad was its announcement that its cloud storage of movies had gone live. Those who have bought movies from iTunes can now stream their films onto their Apple devices. Two studios, though — 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures — aren’t letting their films come out and play for now.

According to the L.A. Times, Fox and Universal are holding out because of hitches in their deals with HBO. Both studios say they’ll work out the issues soon to get their films in the cloud, which includes movies from Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros.

As the Times post notes, movies’ inclusion in Apple’s cloud adds considerable value to the largely ignored Apple TV device, which has always been hampered by its limited storage. Now those with Apple TV can pull films directly from their libraries and play them on their TVs — provided they’re not Fox or Universal films. It’s a wonder that it took Apple so long to get the system up and running.